Ideas for a "magical" shield

[farinal]

I introduced a new item in the last session of our game. I wasn't planning on anything like that. It just came up. Feels like the shield is really magical and find it's way into my campaign.

My players were defending the village of Celduin and it's fords against the Enemy. One of my players, a big warrior of Beornings was using a two handed axe. He decided to get a shield and one handed axe and when the enemy retreated for a few hours I allowed him to visit the local smithy. There he found a dusty and very, very old shield.

Something like this but much older looking and the tree motif half erased:

I was running wild with ideas in my head when we were playing the game in session, thinking how it got in Celduin from apparantly Gondor. Haven't decided on it's origin and story yet but in terms of game mechanics I have done something like this, during the midnight when the player was fighting against orcs on the bridge for a second, behind the clouds the moon comes up front and shines on the shield. The orcs around the player trembled with fear when the moonlight shone on the tree motif and the one he engaged in combat threw his weapon and ran.

Now this can be a normal event. Orcs knowing the Tree symbol of Gondor may got scared for an instant when it shined with moonlight. Or maybe some higher power were aiding my players and made the moon shine BUT I actually want it to be a "magical item." A very low power one of course.

My player also suspected this and gave the shield to Gloin and asked if he or other dwarves can find any runes on it.

Any ideas?

[Elmoth]

Once per engagement, if the light of the moon shines on it, you can make an Awe roll to remove hate from your enemy. If you are engaged, you roll normally. If you decide to go for the regular Awe roll instead of engaging in combat, in grants an automatic success that can pile on with your regular Awe test.

Sounds like a cool item, even if its uses will be limited in quite a few cases. The tree design might cause a decrease of the TN of the Awe test if tyou want it to be more useful in general.

[farinal]

Nice ideas. How can the shield be in Celduin, what you guys think? Perhaps it was brought here from the old days of the alliance between Kingdom of Rhovanion and Gondor. Or maybe when the Gondorians fought against Wainriders and some of the soldiers came as far north as Celduin and left it. Or a Northman took it as a souveniour.

This shield makes the second magical item in my campaign. The first one is a minor Ring of Power called the Ring of Wing or Ramar Ring (if I remember the Elvish correctly). It belongs to one of my other player and it can make you communicate with animals. It was designed to bring some animals like Great Eagles under the control of Shadow but it was mostly a failure to craft the ring. It only makes you communicate with animals on basic things rather than control them. Yet I still make my player roll Corruption whenever he uses. He still doesn't know the power and history of this ring though so I sometimes drop random hints, like birds flying over them chatting with each other and my player understands but doesn't get where does this chatter come from.



Waiting for the Rivendell book to make them go there and find out But I think it is safe to say Gloin can understand the shield's nature and tell it to my player.

[Otaku-sempai]

I'm liking your approach to magic items and the suggestion of the shield removing an ammount of Hate with a successful Awe roll.

It makes sense to tie the shield in with the Wainrider war. Gondorean soldiers might have been persuing a fleeing splinter-force of Wainriders that fled north through the Dead Marshes into Dagorlad.

[farinal]

As replacing an attack roll?

[Glorelendil]

Am I remembering the rule wrong or is that how Awe works without the shield?

Maybe make the shield lower TN by 2?

Or treat Awe as favoured?

[Woodclaw]

Am I remembering the rule wrong or is that how Awe works without the shield?

Maybe make the shield lower TN by 2?

Or treat Awe as favoured?

Perhaps the shiled allows to add the Attribute bonus for free once.

[Elmoth]

Yup. What the shield does is

1. Allow you to do an Awe test *and* attack.
2. Use a normal Awe test but grant an automatic Tengwar to the roll (no attack in this case).

Or those were my suggestions at least. In conditioned it to "night battles with moon", so it is not something you will be using all the time.

[farinal]

Yup. What the shield does is

1. Allow you to do an Awe test *and* attack.
2. Use a normal Awe test but grant an automatic Tengwar to the roll (no attack in this case).

Or those were my suggestions at least. In conditioned it to "night battles with moon", so it is not something you will be using all the time.

Yes since it will be used rarely I don't think it is an over-powered item. I like these two attributes.

Perhaps the shield was forged in Minas Ithil before the Nazgul recaptured it in T.A and it was used in the war against the Wainriders around 1800s. Then left behind in Celduin or in that general area. I might throw in the Saruman's Gondorian assistant from HotW in Gladden Fields in to the fold and when the company encounters him he instantly recognises the shield from Ithil and perhaps it turns out it was belonged to some important noble or captain or something. Haven't thought of that yet

[Valarian]

1) The shield allows a re-roll of the Feat die in a protection test (taking the best result).
2) The shield gives an extra +1 bonus to Parry.